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352 unnumbered pages. Date of 20 March 1496 from the colophon. Folio, 12" x 8.5" (30.5 cm x 21.5 cm) In old possibly contemporary crisp vellum with 5 cords at the spine. Vellum has normal age, a spot or two, some wrinkling, upper corner of front cover bent back from storage, an inscription in old brown ink in Italian which looks like the date the book was purchased. Interior wide margins, library stamp and Palermo Oratory handwritten ownership here and there. The incunable is in good condition with a sturdy binding. There are old repairs in the margins on Ee6-Ff1, KK1 ditto, YY9 has chip on the fore-edge and there is some staining, general signs of thumbing and use, but still a serviceable and usable copy. Occasional marginalia. First and last blanks present. Printer's device at colophon, title page has marginalia and some blue underlining. Contains: Heptaplus de opere sex dierum geneseos; Apologia (which contains a section on natural magic and the Hebrew Kabalah) ; De Ente et uno; Epistolae; Testimonia vitae. ISTC ip00632000 (first part only) . Provenance: Congregacionis Oratory Panormi & Biblioteca Salomune Nicosia. "Johannes Picus de Mirandula; 24 February 1463 17 November 1494) was an Italian Renaissance nobleman and philosopher. He is famed for the events of 1486, when, at the age of 23, he proposed to defend 900 theses on religion, philosophy, natural philosophy, and magic against all comers, for which he wrote the Oration on the Dignity of Man, which has been called the "Manifesto of the Renaissance", and a key text of Renaissance humanism and of what has been called the "Hermetic Reformation". He was the founder of the tradition of Christian Kabbalah, a key tenet of early modern Western esotericism. The 900 Theses was the first printed book to be universally banned by the Church. Pico is sometimes seen as a proto-Protestant, because his 900 theses anticipated many Protestant views. " Lorenzo Medici was a supporter and many of the letters in this volume are addressed to him. Pico was introduced in Perugia to the mystical Hebrew Kabbalah, which fascinated him, as did the late classical Hermetic writers, such as Hermes Trismegistus. The Kabbalah and Hermetica were thought in Pico's time to be as ancient as the Old Testament. Pico's "tutor" in Kabbalah was Rabbi Johannan Alemanno (1430s-c1510) , who argued that the study and mastery of magic was to be regarded as the final stage of one's intellectual and spiritual education. The works in this volume were considered heretical and numbers printed during his lifetime were banned by the Pope and burned. ; Folio 13" - 23" tall; 352 pages. Seller Inventory # 11948
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